“Just 15 more minutes, that's all I ask, just 15 more minutes!” This is a common cry of an exhausted parent. It is often heard from a parent burying his or her head in a pillow as a sweet little face peers up at them from the side of the bed in the wee hours of the morning, and then requests some milk, a bowl of cereal, permission to watch “toons” or simply wanting to play. Or, for the younger child that has not yet figured out how to climb out of bed, the bed side visit is supplanted by a screaming voice from the child's room boldly requesting Mommy or Daddy to come.
To all parents of young children, sleep is quite sacred—and scarce. Anything that would help to foster quiet times for their children, especially in the 5:00 am to 9:00 am range is greatly appreciated. If you have ever tried to logically reason with a 2 to 5 year old that it is not time to wake up yet, I am sure that you found that your ability to break through that understanding barrier was quite limited. They clearly don't understand or appreciate the exasperated “Mommy needs just 15 more minutes of sleep” plea. Nor do they seem to understand the reasoning that it gets lighter earlier and stays light longer in the summer time than in the winter time. And the old line of “wait until the long arm is on the 12 and the little arm is on the 9” simply falls on deaf ears as your child stares at you, blinking like a frog in a hail storm. And on top of all of that, at 6:00 am it is really not easy to come up with a good, 2 to 5 year old level argument as to why they have to stay in bed and be quiet.
What is needed in the art is a technique to clearly deliver a message to a child that it is time to stay in bed and sleep. Preferably, it is desired that this message can be delivered to a child without a parent having to wake up, yell the message to the room down the hall or up the stairs, and especially prior to the parent having to go to the child's room or waking up with the child standing beside their bed, tugging on the parent's pajamas.
One thing that you learn quite quickly, especially if you sit and watch BABY FIRST TV, SESAME STREET or THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE shows, kids are smart. However, the key to tapping into this smartness is all in the delivery of the message. What really works are simple and clear statements that are repeated or constant and that are delivered along with animation.
What is needed in the art is a technique to deliver a message to a child it is time to stay in bed and sleep in such a manner that is simple and clear, repeatable and is delivered along with animation.
Another important aspect of a child is anticipation that something good is on the way. For instance, a parent learns early on in child rearing that you get more peas down a child if you say “eat your peas and you can have some ice cream for dessert”. Entering the bathtub is always easier if a floating, squeaking or spraying toy is promised. Parents also learn quickly that simply saying “play time is over lets go inside” never goes over as well as saying “play time will be over in 10 minutes to finish up what you are doing before we go inside”. Thus, what is needed in the art is not only a technique to deliver a message that it is time to stay in bed, but also to create an anticipatory environment that will serve as an indicator to the child that it is time to wake up and get out of bed.
Somewhere along the road of life, we generally migrate from a desire to have a light on in our room when we go to sleep to preferring darkness. Although the timing and the reasoning behind this migration may vary, it is nonetheless well known that that majority of children prefer to have some light on in the room when being put to bed. The trueness of this tendency is illustrated by the market for night lights. Because most children already have a night light, it would be beneficial to combine the above-described needs in the art into a night light embodiment to kill two birds with one stone.
As is shown in the following description, the present invention meets these needs in the art in a novel manner.